Becky Beasley’s A Gentle Man (Part II) Comes To The Bluecoat  

An exhibition that begins beneath your feet and eventually arrives at the subject of  dying is clearly asking rather more of its audience than simply to look…  

Opening at Bluecoat this September, Becky Beasley’s A Gentle Man (Part II) (1975– 2029) brings together photography, sculpture, ceramics, furniture and moving image within an installation that transforms the gallery into what Bluecoat describes as a  “contemplative and immersive landscape”. It is an ambitious proposition, concerned not only with the objects and images we encounter but with how we inhabit spaces, relationships and, ultimately, our own lives.  

However, its arrival in Liverpool is significant. A Gentle Man (Part II) is a major touring project commissioned jointly by QUAD in Derby, Bluecoat and John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, supported by the Freelands Foundation and Arts Council England.  Following its first presentation at QUAD earlier this year, Liverpool becomes the second of three locations for a long-form exhibition that concludes in Southampton in 2027.  

Beasley herself is an award-winning visual artist and Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths, who works across photography, sculpture, installation and writing. Her practice has repeatedly explored the objects and spaces of everyday life, particularly interiors, alongside the limitations of language and the possibilities offered by literary references. The Bluecoat also describes Beasley as an autism advocate, with aspects of the complexity and ambiguity within her work intertwined with her own autistic experience.  

For A Gentle Man (Part II), that thinking expands across the gallery itself. A large pale green linoleum artwork covers the floor, incorporating hand-cut silhouettes of lakes. Adjustable “conversation” or “kissing” benches provide places to sit and rest, while  pastel-pink curtain sculptures form the letters H, S and P – an acronym for Highly Sensitive Person. Small ceramic works sit discreetly on a series of “lake” tables echoing  the floor designs, while existing and new photographic works occupy elongated oak  shelves.  

Furniture, curtains, shelves, tables: Beasley draws upon the vocabulary of interiors and domestic life, but here those familiar forms become something less certain. The gallery is not simply somewhere through which the visitor moves; it becomes somewhere to  occupy. The benches in particular suggest an exhibition that actively encourages a  slower encounter – somewhere to stop, sit and spend time with the work. And that feels increasingly important.  

At the heart of the exhibition is a four-part video portrait of an imaginary figure created by merging aspects of American novelist and short-story writer Bernard Malamud with Beasley’s own father. Across four chapters – work, family, chosen family and dying –  the film considers some of the milestones through which a life might be understood. British actor Russell Tovey (Being Human, The History Boys) provides the narration.  

The premise allows something deeply personal to coexist with fiction and literature. Memory, biography and invention overlap, while questions of work, family, friendship and mortality gradually move the exhibition beyond its physical environment towards  something considerably more intimate.  

There is another particularly interesting Liverpool dimension. Beasley has worked with members of Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts programme for learning-disabled adults, discussing both their practices and ways exhibitions might become more  inclusive. Connections between their work and Beasley’s interests in space, sensory  experience and inner lives led her to select works by Studio Me artists Tony Carroll, Tess Gilmartin and Tom Rooney for inclusion alongside the exhibition. That dialogue seems  entirely appropriate for an exhibition concerned with sensitivity, interior experience and  different ways of inhabiting the world.  

A Gentle Man (Part II) promises something increasingly valuable: an exhibition that does not demand instant comprehension, but gives its audience permission to spend  time, make connections and perhaps remain uncertain.  

Becky Beasley’s A Gentle Man (Part II) (1975–2029) runs at Bluecoat from 26 September 2026 to 3 January 2027, with a free opening preview on Friday 25 September, 6–8pm. Entry to the exhibition is free.  

For more information visit thebluecoat.org.uk/whatson/becky-beasley.